Silver-gilt cup and cover, and a sideboard dish, by Paul de Lamerie

London, England, AD 1723

With the arms of the Honourable George Treby, M.P. (around 1684-1742)

Treby commissioned both these display pieces at the same time, paying substantially extra for the gilding for the cup. It is interesting to note the difference in effect achieved by the two techniques used for the arms. The arms on the cup are expertly engraved, while those on the dish are made up of cast and chased ornament in relief on an applied plaque. The arms on the dish cost almost fifteen times as much as those on the cup, and are the first recorded arms by de Lamerie in this fashion.

Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751), a second generation Huguenot immigrant, ran the most celebrated and successful London goldsmith's firm in the first half of the eighteenth century; his patrons included politicians, nobility and the wealthy middle class. He ran an efficient business, employing a number of such skilled craftsmen as designers, modellers, chasers and engravers, as well as sub-contracting work out to other individual craftsmen. As was common practice among successful goldsmith's firms in the eighteenth century, pieces stamped with the de Lamerie 'makers' mark' are those that were made in his workshop or sold by his firm, and not necessarily by the hand of de Lamerie himself.

H. Tait, 'Huguenot silver made in London: The Peter Wilding Bequest to the British Museum, Part II', Connoisseur-1 (September 1972)

T. Murdoch (ed.), The quiet conquest: the Huguen, exh. cat. (London, 1985)

S. Hare, Paul de Lamerie, exh. cat. (Goldsmiths' Hall, London, 1990)

C. Hartop, The Huguenot legacy: English s (London, Thomas Heneage, 1996)